Life-saving appliance.



e. M. BOD DY.

LlFE SAVING APPLIANCE. APPLICATION. EILED MAY 6.19%5- Patented Apr. 11, 1916'.

GEORGE MARLET'J. BonnY, or oNno ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR T0 BODDY LIFESAVING ArrLirANcEs 1914) LIMITED, or LONDON, ENGLAND.

LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 6, 1915. Serial No. 26,312.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE MARLETT BODDY, a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at London, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Life- Saving Appliances and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to life-saving ackets, swimming appliances and the like of the kind wherein the jacket or the like is provided with front and rear buoyant compartments whereby the wearer will automatically assume a position with the face supported well above the surface of the water.

This invention is particularly applicable to that type of device described in United States Patent No. 1,028,433 and British specification No. 13,475/1912, wherein the front and rear buoyant compartments are so proportioned as to cause the wearer automatioally to assume a rearwardly inclined position face uppermost, with the head supported well above the surface of the water.

The object of the present invention is to provide a device which will be efficient 1n use and extremely simple and cheap of construction and it is such that it can be applied without difliculty to persons and children of all ages and sizes.

A device. according to the present invention comprises one or more front buoyant compartments, one or more rear buoyant compartments connected together in such manner that an opening is provided between them whereby the device may be placed over the head of the wearer, means being provided whereby the size of said opening may be adjusted as required so that the portion surrounding the neck of the wearer can be drawn up or otherwise made to fit any size of neck with a certain desirable closeness. In order to attain this end I prefer to pro vide the front portion of the jacket with securing tapes, cords or the like which pass through loops on the device over the wearers shoulders and thence through loops or the like upon the rear portion of the device, the free ends of the said tapes or cords being adapted to be brought from the back portion around the sides of the person and fastened to or over the front portion, the arrangement being such that by drawing back the tapes or the like before fastening same thefront and rear compartments are drawn well up around the wearers neck causing them to fit with a certain degree of closeness whether the device has been applied to an adult or to a child.

Another important feature of my invent1on is the provision, when required, of a buoyant compartment at the lower part of the front of the jacket which compartment is attached to the front of the jacket by a flexible strip so that when in use this lower buoyant compartment will be turned upwardly about said flexible strip and serve to increase the buoyant effect of the device. I

The accompanying drawings serve to illustrate by way of example, two constructions of device according to the present invention. F1gure 1 1s a view of one form of the device secured upon a wearer. Fig. 2 is a view in, plan showing the inside of the device illustrated upon a wearer. Fig. 3 shows an other form of the device secured in position upon a wearer. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the deviceshown in Fig. 3 showing the inside thereof.

Referring to the drawings the device is constructed, by securing together at their edges two elongated lengths of suitable fabno in such manner that three pockets or compartments a, b, c are formed, the compartment a being disposed at one end, the middle compartment 6 being connected to the compartment a by a flexible strip of fabric (Z and the compartment 0 being disposed at the other end. An elongated opening 0 is formed between the compartments 6 and c the said opening having rounded ends 6 e which extend into the compartments 7) and 0 respectively. 7

, Upon each side of the opening (2 is a flexible portion f adapted to lie over the shoulders of the wearer. The compartments a, b and c are stuffed with a buoyant material .such as kapok to form buoyant pads.

Secured near each edge and to the flexible strip d and pad I) (see Fig. 2) are two tapes 9 g each of which passes through a loop 9 extending across the parts f and partway across the pads I) and c, the said tapes emerging from the ends of said loops as shown. The tapes 9 are secured to the flex-ible strip 0? and to the pad Z) but from thence to the ends of the loops 9 they run freely therein so that when the device is placed over the head of the wearer as shown in Figs. 1 and 3 with the pads a and b in front and the pad 0 behind, if the tapes 9 are drawn downwardly the pad 0 and the pad 6 will be drawn together until the rounded end portions 6 c of the elongated opening (2 are drawn into sufliciently close contact with the neck of the wearer. The ends of the tapes 9 are then brought around the wearers sides as shown in' Figs. 1 and 3 and secured across the front portion (Z of the device thus leaving the pad a free to move up and down.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4 in this construction the pads a and Z) are each divided vertically into two parts thus giving a greater flexibility and allowing the wearer to move with greater freedom. Where desirable there may be more than one division so that each of the pads a and b may be divided into several parts. In this construction the tapes 9 are secured as before to the parts 03 and Z) and they pass through loops 9 from the pad 6 and are subsequently passed through loops 9 and g situated respectively on the parts f and 0. An additional tape h may be provided upon the front of the portion a which tape may when required be passed around the body of the wearer and its ends secured together. A device constructed in this manner is secured upon the wearer in the same way as is described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2.

In constructing devices according to this invention I may so proportion the amount of kapok in the front and rear compartments that the wearer will automatically assume in the water a rearwardly inclined position with his face well clear of the surface of the water, and this action may be assisted by the pad a, for supposing a person to fall in the water in a forwardly inclined position the pad 64 upon reaching the water will be turned upwardly upon the part d and thus having a tendency to turn the person upon his back or into the required position.

WVhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A life saving appliance comprising buoyant compartments, flexible shoulder pieces having their ends secured to the said compartments and forming with them a neck opening, guide loops on the lower surfaces of the said parts, and flexible connections or draw-strings secured at one end to the lower part of one compartment and passing through the guide loops across the shoulder pieces and the other compartment and having free end portions adapted to be drawn upon to pucker the shoulder pieces and thereby shorten the neck opening and draw the adjacent ends of the compartments upwardly against the neck of the wearer, said free end portions also providing a means for securing the opposite and lower end portions of the compartments against hisbody.

2. A lifesaving appliance comprising at least one front buoyant compartment, and at least one rear buoyant compartment con nected together in such manner that an opening is provided between them whereby the device may be placed over the head of the wearer, means being provided comprising flexible members attached to the device at the inside of the front buoyant compartment passing through loops disposed near the edges of the device and passing over the wearers shoulders, whereby the said com= partments may be drawn together so that the size of the said opening may be adjusted as required and the portion surrounding the neck of the wearer can be made to fit any size of neck with a certain desirable closeness.

3. A life saving appliance comprising at least one front buoyant compartment, and at least one rear buoyant compartment connected together in such manner that a longitudinally arranged elongated opening having ends which project one into the front and one into the rear buoyant compartment is provided between them whereby the device may be placed over the head of the wearer, means being provided comprising flexible members attachedto the device at the inside of the front buoyant compartments passing through loops disposed at the edges of the device, and passing over the wearers shoulders whereby the said compartments may be drawn together so that the size of the said opening may be adjusted as required and the portion surrounding the neck of the wearer can be made to fit any size of neck with a certain desirable close- 11688.

4. A life saving appliance comprising an upper front buoyant compartment and a lower front buoyant compartment hinged together, and at least one rear buoyant compartment connected together in such manner that an opening is provided between them whereby the device may be placed over the head of the wearer, means being provided comprising flexible members attached to the device passing through loops thereon and passing over the wearers shoulders, whereby the said compartments may be drawn together so that the size of said opening may be adjusted as required and the portion surrounding the neck of the wearer can be made to fit any size of neck with a certain desirable closeness.

5. A lifesaving appliance comprising an upper front buoyant compartment and a lower front buoyant compartment hinged together, and at least one rear buoyant compartment connected together in such manner that a longitudinally arranged elongated opening having ends which project one into the front and one into the rear buoyant compartments is provided between them whereby the device may be placed over the head of the wearer, means being provided comprising fieXible members attached to the device passing through loops thereon and passing over the wearers shoulders, whereby the said compartments may be drawn together so that the size of the said opening may be adjusted as required and the portion surrounding the neck of the wearer can be made to fit any size of neck with a certain desirable closeness.

6. A life-saving appliance comprising at least one front buoyant compartment divided into at least two portions longitudinally and at least one rear buoyant compartment connected together in such manner Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

that an opening is provided between them whereby the device may be placed over the head of the wearer, means being provided comprising flexible members attached to the device passing through loops thereon and passing over the wearers shoulders, whereby the said compartments may be drawn together so that the size of said opening may be adjusted as required and the portion surrounding the neck of the wearer can be made to fit any size of neck with a certain desirable closeness.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE MARLETT BODDY. Witnesses G. V. SYMns, H. L. KING.

Washington, D. G. 

